5 Things To Know About Royal St George’s Golf Club

1. Royal St George’s will host The Open in 2020 for the for the 15th time. Past champions include Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, Darren Clarke and Ben Curtis. The Open was last played at Royal St George’s in 2011 when Darren Clarke held off Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to claim the Claret Jug.

2. In 1894, Royal St George’s hosted The Open, which was the first time the Open Championship was played outside of Scotland. The 149th Open will be played from July 12 to 19, 2020.

3. Long regarded as one of England’s best links courses, it was founded to be a rival to St Andrews. It’s the only open rota course in southern England.

4. Similar in style to Muirfield, with each nine broadly circular in design, Royal St George’s is not a traditional out and back configuration. It has a non-contrived, natural look and feel with wildflowers, dune grasses and views over Pegwell Bay. Some of its more interesting features include thatched roof shelters, a tall and deep bunker cut into a huge dune on the 4th hole and symmetrical fairway bunkers on No. 15 hole.

5. It’s located in Sandwich, Kent in southeast England approximately 90 miles from London. Sandwich is an historical town with a population around 5,000 people. It still has many original medieval buildings, churches and public houses.